Maia Matches was born and raised in Toronto, presently conjuring up comix in Amsterdam. She studied Fine Arts and Sculpture at the Academy of Arts and Design, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, where she initiated her first DIY comix zine: Crap* in 2002. Crap* still circulates beneath the Amsterdam canals (stuck between an abandoned bicycle and some beer cans) and has since taken new forms of life, most recently the newsprint KAK, written and published in Cape Town, 2011. Maia’s handmade books and prints have been exhibited worldwide, including StripTurnhout Belguim, Ficomic Barcelona and most recently at Greatmore Studios in Cape Town. Her most ambitious project involves the research of her South African grandfather, Bill Hart, of whom she will write the biography in comic form.

Join her for the making of a brand-spanking-new issue of CRAP*zine on July 3 & 5 in the Ntsikana Gallery!

I’ll be hosting a Master Class on July 9th. First let me say that I’m honored to be asked to host one. I’ve never considered myself to have ‘mastered’ the artform of comicbooks, at least, not yet. I think one can spend a lifetime trying to master it, it is part of the fun isn’t it? That being said: I could be so unmodest as to say I know a few things about drawing comics and making illustrations. Using your art to commuicate an idea, a joke or a story would be my topic of choice to discuss in this Master Class. I will be bringing a lot of examples of my own work for you to look at. I’m looking forward to coming to SA and share my ideas and shoptalk with you. Here’s the cover of the project I’m currently working on. A collection of stories by H.P. Lovecraft, adapted to the comicbook form (in Dutch I’m afraid, working on an english language version). It will not be finished until much later his year, but I’m bringing loads of finished pages, amongst other comics and commercial work.

Pete Woo seems to be on a major rollercoaster these days. Not only is he contributing to the Velocity Anthology, he is also contributing work to the Co/Mix 2011 exhibition in Grahamstown. Totally deserved if you ask me. I love Pete’s style. I’m convinced that if there would be a way to open up his head you would find a magical world of unknown creatures, prehistoric plants, alien colours and impossible amounts of fluffy stuff. I would gamble my kingdom for even half a day in that wonderous world.

It all started with this sketch that I doodled at the end of January and quickly coloured up in photoshop.

I called it “The Coming of the Great White Hunters”… and it was for me a creative experiment that combined a homage to some of the old “Lost World” comic stories and visualy playing with an alternative vision of South Africa’s colonial “frontier” of the late 1800′s. The idea of combining images of our colonial past… with a world where dinosaurs roam… and then comes the arrival of white settlers with large and powerful firearms, who come to hunt these magnificent beasts virtually to extinction. The arrival of these “Great White Hunters” is the harbinger of an ecological and human tragedy in an alternative world… that parallels the mess left behind by colonialism, that we are just too familiar with.

The idea took root and wouldn’t let go… and is slowly (some would say too slowly) developing into a series of 6 or 8 pen and ink and watercolour pieces that combine action, comic narrative and the stilted, posed images of early photography… below some of the sketches as I go along groping for the final images and an execution style I’ll be happy with.

When dinosaur hunting… make sure to bring a big gun…and a big moustache…